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Track Specific Elements
Up-to-date with version Most of MusicBee's layout elements fall into one of two categories: Library Navigation or Track Details. This page covers the elements that provide information or artwork relevant to a specific track, either the currently playing track or the currently selected track. Any of these elements can be shown in any of the Left Sidebar, Left Main Panel, Right Main Panel, or Right Sidebar. By default, the panel only shows the Now Playing List and Track Information panels for Details and Lyrics. Other components need to be turned on via the Now Playing screen. The sidebar is shown here with all components turned on and in their default configurations. As numbered, the components are: # # Panel #Sidebar Header # # # Track Information The track information panels are the piece of the Now Playing Panel with the most options. There are three parts to Track Information (Details, Lyrics, and Artwork), which can be arranged in a vast number of ways between the two sidebars and floating windows. Track Info Options Whenever any Track Info panels are displayed, you will see this bar: By clicking on the bar you can toggle whether the playing track or selected track(s) is shown. The first thing under "track information" heading the in the Layout Configuration screen are these options: "Stack panels using tabs" is what you see in the example at the top, where you can only see one of Details, Lyrics or Artwork at a time. This option is only available in the right sidebar if the Now Playing List is also shown in the right sidebar. If it is moved elsewhere (or when viewing the Now Playing playlist), this automatically switches to "show all panels vertically." On the other hand, "stack panels using tabs" is the ONLY option in the left sidebar. "Show in player controls panel" requires that you have the player controls in the sidebar. It ignores all Track Details options except for Display Fields, creating this layout instead: The height of the panel will depend on the number of fields you have displayed, and the artwork will automatically resize to fit the panel, so the more fields you display, the bigger the artwork will be. Lyrics can be in a floating window or in a tab. When Track Info is shown in the right sidebar without the Now Playing List, the sidebar header will say Track Information instead of Now Playing. If they are both shown, you can double click the heading of the Track Info section to maximise it to the whole panel, and the same to reduce it again. Details Track Details is the section for displaying various tags like Title, Artist, Album, Composer, etc. The options for it dominate the configuration screen. The tab even has sub-tabs! Top Section On the right side of this section, you can set a custom font for everything in this panel. The options on the left relate to artwork. (Yes, in addition to the artwork options in both left and right sidebars, you can show artwork in the Track Details panel. This is where it is shown by default.) *'Fixed:' You can set this to any size you want. *'Fit to Panel:' artwork will resize when you resize the panel. (with examples) *'Do Not Display Artwork:' examples below *'...above Fields' *'...left of Fields' *'...right of Fields' *'...below Fields' : shown at top Display Fields This is where you can configure the information displayed to your liking. This is for any sort of lead-in you want for each line (such as naming the fields, like "Artist:"). Allows you to configure what is displayed in each line. You can use meta-tags and functions just like in Naming Templates. This gives a huge amount of flexibility, including having multiple tags in one line or different tags for different types of music. For instance, this formula will show artist for popular music, but replace it with composer for the Classical genre category: $If(=Classical,,) Lets you set an opacity (% of foreground color vs background color) for each line, to create contrasts between different lines. Allows you to customise the fonts of individual lines (changing font size, adding bold or italics, etc). Dictates how many rows a particular line/field can take up before being truncated with "...". Here's an example of the above formula on the second line, multiple fields on the third line (year of composition and work, in this case) and 50% contrast plus italics on the fourth line (genres): You will find a variety of checkboxes at the bottom left of the Display Fields tab. These are special tags which are displayed graphically or are long enough to need their own lines. Also notice the box above the second column which says "split multi-value tags into rows." This means that if there are multiple values for a tag, such as artist or genre, they will be shown as one value per row, ignoring the row span setting (this also causes the display artist tag to be ignored, showing the actual artist/performer/etc values instead). Here's another example, with all boxes checked but no artwork: As long as the or tag is by itself on a line (no formulas or extra characters used), it will be turned into an active link to either last.fm (opens in a new tab in the internal browser) or a library filter for that artist/album, depending on which option is selected here. Web Links In addition to displaying tags, you can create shortcuts to websites (which will open in MusicBee's internal browser) in your Track Details panel. You can add your own links, and use meta-tags for any site in which the literal tag can be used as part of the URL. Just follow the model of the pre-configured links. The first link you follow will always open a new tab, but you can choose whether you want to reuse that tab or open new ones for other links. Lyrics As usual, there is an option to customise the font for the whole panel. There is also an option to "use custom color for highlighted text," which applies to the active line of synchronised lyrics. This makes the background of the floating window (see below) transparent. The border remains normal. There are different options for how lyrics can be displayed based on what layout the Track Info panels are in. They are all listed here, along with which layout they are available in. If lyrics are docked in a tab, you can toggle between the floating window and the tab by double clicking the Lyrics header or closing the floating window. The examples below show some synchronised and some unsynchronised lyrics. If the panel is showing selected tracks rather than the playing track, synchronised lyrics will still be centered but they will show as normal text, rather than scrolling (even if the playing track is the one selected). *'...in Floating Window:' any layout *'...docked in a Tab' : in tabs or in player controls *'...above Track Details:' stacked vertically *'...below Track Details:' stacked vertically Artwork There are only three options for artwork display: *'Show Artwork docked in a Tab:' Artwork has its own tab, which can be instead of or in addition to artwork in the Track Details panel, unless panels are stacked vertically in which case the Artwork panel takes precedence. *'Show Artwork in Left Sidebar:' Turns on Album Art in the Left Sidebar. Also can be instead of or in addition to. *'Show Artwork in Track Details Panel:' Effectively the same as turning off Artwork entirely, provided you have Track Details set to display artwork. Other Positions Right clicking in the sidebar header offers quick access to the various position options for the whole Now Playing Panel: . This can also be changed on the first page of Layout Preferences. Left Sidebar Since the left sidebar needs space for the Navigation Panel and maybe Library Explorer, too, you can only have one of the Now Playing List or Track Information displayed there. If the Now Playing List is in the left sidebar, the left sidebar image options remain available. If Track Information Panel is in the left sidebar, the left sidebar images are disabled. Wavebar and spectrum visualiser can be in the left sidebar only with Track Information. They are displayed at the bottom of the panel, regardless of their position in the right sidebar. Player controls can also only be in the left sidebar with Track Info, but you have the option of sending it to the "middle" instead of the bottom (which is to say, above the Track Info panel but below the Navigation Panel). The only option for the Now Playing List while Track Info is in the left sidebar is to show it in the main panel. If you'd like to have access to it without putting it in the main panel, try using the Now Playing Assistant. Floating Window This is the same floating window as the Classic Compact Player, but they are configured independently. The floating window doesn't follow most of the configuration settings for the right sidebar, either, though it will carry over wavebar and spectrum visualiser if those are shown. By the same token, changes you make to the floating window layout will not affect the sidebar, except for wavebar and spectrum visualiser. This is the default floating window layout: As you can see, it defaults to "show track details in player controls" view. You can switch this to tabs or disable it, if you wish. You can also show lyrics in their own floating window. As long as there is a player panel in the main window, you can disable the player panel here. The only piece of the floating window that you cannot disable is the Now Playing List. However, you can't show other parts of the panel in the main window while the floating window is open. If you wish to have the Now Playing List in a floating window while showing other parts of the panel in the main window, try the Now Playing Assistant. The floating window slider at the top of Layout Configuration controls the transparency of this window. Closing the window will return the panel to the right sidebar and restore the configuration it was in when switched to the window. Layout Configuration Panel For reference, here is the full Layout Configuration Panel. It can be accessed via Preferences > Layout (1) > Configure Panel (button), or by right clicking somewhere in the panel and choosing "Customise Panel Settings." Images Right clicking anywhere in the navigation panel will bring up this menu, showing some image display options in addition to another way to open Library Explorer: You can only display one of the image options at a time. They are shown in the bottom portion of the sidebar, below Library Explorer if it is open, and will automatically expand to fit the width of the panel. Artist Photo will look for a local artist photo first, then search fanart.tv, then last.fm, until it finds a match. Artist Photo Gallery will scroll through images found locally, on fanart.tv, last.fm, and flickr. Other Components Wavebar The wavebar is basically a volume map of the current track. It acts as an alternative progress bar, showing where you are in the track by contrast. You can click on it to skip around in the track. The options for the wavebar are simple: Besides turning it on or off, you can set the wavebar's height in pixels, and you can choose to show it at the top of the bottom of the sidebar. Here's a larger version of the wavebar (height 75 px, with the panel expanded proportionally): For more wavebar display options, see the Player Panel. Spectrum Visualisation Spectrum visualisation shows what frequencies are being produced at any given moment. It is laid out on an infinitely expandable grid, which you can see when playback is stopped: Options are the same as for the wavebar. The spectrum bars are always shown closer to top or bottom than the wavebar. Here's the spectrum visualisation in action at 75 px: